Chapter Seventeen
The news of Josie and Lincoln breaking up had zipped across town faster than a rocket heading to the moon. Josie ignored the pity-filled glances she’d received for days. She’d shut her mother down when she’d tried to give an I-told-you-so lecture. She’d smiled and pretended and gone on with her life. But it was hard. Oh, was it hard.
Today was the day she’d volunteered to help with the annual sprucing up of Morganville. She hated the thought of leaving her house and being with people, but she didn’t have a choice. She’d given her word. And she was out of chocolate.
Josie locked the front door and headed to her car, stopping when she noticed a gift-wrapped red box on the hood. Who in the… She pulled off the white bow and opened the lid. An antique mirror nestled in tissue paper. She lifted it out and looked at the note card. My love was scrawled across the card.
“Okay…” she muttered, wondering if this was someone’s idea of a joke about the breakup. She put the box and mirror in the back seat and got into her car to find a note taped to the steering wheel. Glove box.
How had someone gotten into her car? The only other person who had a spare key for emergencies was…Casey… Josie opened the glove box and pulled out another box. Inside was a miniature wooden bridge. The only wooden bridge in town was a small footbridge that crossed over a small creek not far from where the hayride festivities had been held. That bridge was where she’d first met Lincoln. He’d smiled when he’d seen her and Casey coming, and he’d handed her a dandelion. She still had that flower pressed between the pages of her tattered copy of Pride and Prejudice.
That sunny day would forever be stuck in her brain as the beginning of everything with Lincoln. Heart thumping, she dug a small slip of paper from the bottom of the box.
The minute you stepped your bare foot onto this bridge, I knew you were going to change my life.
Lincoln was leaving her clues? For what? He’d made it clear he wanted nothing to do with a relationship. Josie bit her lip, pondering what to do, then decided she owed it to her heart to see what was going on. If nothing else, whatever it was might give her closure.
She drove to the bridge, then parked and glanced toward the trees. From where she stood, she could see the first railing of the bridge. Muttering to herself to get it over with, she walked determinedly toward it.
When the bridge came into view, she stopped. It was covered in rose petals. Lincoln was standing in the middle of it. Behind him, a large sheet was strung across a line hanging between two trees. She stared at him. He held a box in his hand, but she didn’t care what it was. He was so handsome it made her breathless, and she knew it had been a mistake to come. This was Lincoln trying to apologize, hoping they could at least be friends. Probably so she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable around his family, but she couldn’t take it. Couldn’t be near him without hurting. She was leaving. The minute she swung around, he called her name.
Putting her hands on her hips, she faced him. “What?”
“Can we talk?”
“You said everything you needed to say. Trust me, I got the message.”
“Please.”
Calling herself ten kinds of a fool for caving to that deep-voiced plea, she marched forward.
When she neared, he held his hands out.
She glanced at the object in his hands. “It’s a box. I don’t get it.”
“Open it.”
Though she wanted to go back to her car so she could nurse her heartbreak in peace, Josie took the box and opened the flaps.
Inside was an old picture of her. She took it out. “I don’t get it.”
“I kept that picture through the years. I always knew where it was at because I took care of it. I protected it. What I didn’t protect was you from me being an idiot. And I didn’t protect me from falling in love with you.”
Josie heard him but kept her guard up. “You say that now, but you’ll get scared and run again.” She chewed on her lower lip and tried to push back the flood of emotions trying to drown her.
Lincoln shook his head. “No. Because I know now that I loved you long before today. It happened over the years and my stupid plan, my perfect plan to guard my heart and not fall in love, never even had a chance. My heart was yours from the moment I saw you.”
Josie blinked rapidly and looked away, willing herself not to cry. She was still hurting over the way he’d walked out of her life.
“Josie, I remember you. I remember thinking how blue your eyes were.”
“Lincoln—” Josie didn’t want to walk down memory lane. Not when she knew how it had ended in the awful moment when he’d said she wasn’t going to be in his future.
He walked closer. “I remember the first time I saw you cry. The first time you hugged me. The first time I held your hand.”
“Lincoln…”
“I know that I messed up, and it scares me that I don’t know how to fix it. I was afraid, before. I didn’t think I was good enough for you. I thought I’d fail you. And maybe I still will, but I’ll try my hardest not to. I love you, and I’ll do anything to win you back. All I need is a chance to prove it.”
Josie could only stare at him as emotions overwhelmed her.
He held up his hand. “Wait.” Jogging back to the other side of the bridge, he pulled the sheet down.
Josie gasped at the backdrop of the night sky. Thousands of stars dotted the canvas. She put her hand over her mouth.
“I’d give you real stars if I could, but this is all I had to work with. And I may not be the handsome prince you imagined in the past, but I’d like the part from here on out.”
Josie couldn’t stop the tears. “You really love me?”
“Yes. With all my yesterdays and all my todays and tomorrows.” He rushed to her and knelt on one knee, taking her hands in his. “Marry me, Josie.”
She couldn’t stop the small sob that burst from her lips. “You would really want to make that mistake with me?”
Lincoln gently squeezed her hands. “I was an idiot. Loving you, marrying you, could never be a mistake. Run away with me. Or marry me in a big ceremony. I don’t care as long as your answer is yes.”
“But what about your perfect plan?”
“Overrated. You’re my plan now.”
“Oh? You have a plan for me?”
He grinned. “I have a lot of plans for you, but you haven’t said you’d marry me yet.”
Her heart full, Josie said, “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Lincoln took the diamond from the box, stood, and slid it onto her finger. Then he kissed her until her head swam. When he pulled away, Josie pressed her hand against his heart. “I can hardly believe this is mine.”
“It always has been and always will be.”